HARD-PRESSED taxpayers are being stung for more than £2.3million a year to subsidise restaurants, bars and cafes for members of the House of Lords.

The subsidy works out at £83.90 per week for each of the 760 peers, many of whom are millionaires.

An unemployed person on JobSeeker’s Allowance is expected to live on £71 a week.

The peers’ fine dining discount comes on top of the £300 per day they get for attending the Lords, which is supposed to cover their food as well as accommodation.

We paid £757,696 in 2011-12 to subsidise Westminster’s Peers’ Dining Room, where lords, bishops and baronesses can enjoy a starter of marinated king scallops with baby fennel, blood orange, puffed pork rind and crisp shallots for just £7.

The self-service River Restaurant offers more everyday dishes at bargain prices – thanks to a handout of £501,646 from the taxpayer.

Another £246,307 of our money went to the plush Barry Room restaurant, where only £6 will buy a hungry peer a starter of quail with pancetta popcorn, sweetcorn and red onions.

And the more humble Home Room, where lords and ladies tired of fine dining can tuck into canteen food such as sausage and mash, was subsidised to the tune of £185,694.

Voters struggling to make ends meet in the economic downturn also subsidised the peers’ Bishops’ Bar (£43,971), the Millbank House Cafe (£73,857), the peers’ guest room (£2843) and the Lords Bar (£326).

That made a total of £1,812,258. But when general “central costs” of £549,179 were added, the overall subsidy rose to £2,361,437 – £63,822.62 for each of the 37 weeks the Lords was in session.

Parliamentary officials insisted the 2011-12 subsidy was only £1.33million.

But they got that figure by subtracting profits from private events and even gift shop sales – a practice branded “creative accounting” by critics.

The shocking scale of the Lords catering subsidy was revealed after a question from Labour peer Lord Campbell-Savours. The figures were published in Hansard, the official record of Parliament.

Peers could easily pay for their dinners without discounts. The former Tory leader of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, is worth an estimated £10million, and former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has an estimated fortune of £200million.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Creative accounting won’t change the fact that taxpayers are subsiding food and drink for MPs and lords when many families are struggling to put food on the table.

“Politicians promised to end this scandalous subsidy. It’s time they stuck to their words.”

A Lords spokesman said the restaurants were bound to make a loss because of the “unique nature and practices” of the House.

He said the catering and retail subsidy had been cut by 22 per cent since 2007 and would be 43 per cent down by the end of 2012-13.

And he added: “The House of Lords is working to increase efficiencies and raise prices where appropriate in order to reduce the refreshment department subsidy on a year-by-year basis.”